Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport (OEMA/MED) is the principal gateway to Medina, Saudi Arabia, handling heavy scheduled and charter traffic, particularly during the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage seasons. It sits at 2,093 ft elevation and offers two long, ILS-equipped runways capable of accepting the largest airliners, making it an imposing but straightforward destination for simulator pilots flying wide-body or airliner types into the Arabian Peninsula.
Prince Mohammad Bin Abdulaziz Airport, widely known simply as Medina Airport, serves the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia's Medina Region. It is operated under a long-term public-private partnership and is a hub for Saudia, with much of its traffic tied to the annual influx of pilgrims travelling for Hajj and Umrah. For the simulator pilot it is a good option for practising heavy-jet operations into a major Middle Eastern international airport, with long paved runways, an ILS, and a busy but well-defined traffic pattern of international and domestic services.
The airport lies at coordinates 24.5503N, 39.7058E on the outskirts of Medina, in the Medina Region of Saudi Arabia. As a large international airport it sits within controlled airspace served by its own approach and tower control, with Madinah Approach handling traffic in the wider terminal area before handoff to Madinah Tower for the final approach and landing phase.
The airport has two physical runways. The longer, 17/35, is 14,217 ft long with a hard (asphalt) surface, is lit, and is equipped with ILS on both directions. The second, 18/36, is 9,998 ft long, also hard-surfaced and lit; runway 36 is ILS-equipped, while runway 18 is not. Both runways are of a scale suited to wide-body and long-haul airliner operations.
Air traffic services are provided under the callsigns Madinah Approach and Madinah Tower. Published frequencies are Approach on 124.2 MHz, ATIS on 114.1 MHz and 126.85 MHz, Ground on 121.9 MHz, and Tower on 118.3 MHz. The field is equipped with ILS, supporting instrument approaches to its main runways.
The airport traces its origins to the 1950s, when Medina's original airfield operated with two runways, 18/36 and 15/33; the latter, roughly 8,000 feet long, was closed in 1986 and later absorbed into the apron, while 18/36 remains part of today's runway layout. International status was granted in 2007, after a consortium of TAV Airports Holding, Saudi Oger Limited and Alrajhi Holding Group was selected to expand and operate the airport. A 25-year concession signed in October 2011 made the project Saudi Arabia's first full public-private partnership in aviation, with construction costs of around US$1.2 billion, rising to as much as US$1.5 billion with expansions. The new terminal, notable as the first commercial airport terminal in the Middle East and North Africa to achieve LEED Gold certification, began test operations on 12 April 2015 when a Saudia flight from Riyadh became the first arrival, and was officially inaugurated by King Salman on 2 July 2015. The airport is named after Mohammad bin Abdulaziz, son of King Abdulaziz and the first governor of Medina Province.
Today the airport functions as a major international and domestic hub, serving as a base for Saudia and hosting a wide range of scheduled carriers connecting Medina to destinations across the Middle East, Asia, Europe and beyond, alongside significant seasonal charter traffic tied to Hajj and Umrah. It ranks as the fourth-busiest airport in Saudi Arabia and one of the busier airports in the Middle East by passenger numbers.